New York City hospital worker who caught coronavirus returns to treat patients

New York City hospital worker who caught coronavirus returns to treat patients

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New Yorkers have a reputation for being tough and resilient – and Raeburn Fairweather is a shining example of that.

The respiratory therapist at Brooklyn’s Maimonides Medical Center is now back at work trying to save the lives of coronavirus patients after catching and recovering from the sickness himself.

“I love my job, and I was very bored at home,” he told the New York Post this week, describing how his fever once reached 104 degrees while he was fighting COVID-19.

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The 47-year-old father of five said he first started seeing symptoms after working a triple shift at the hospital in New York City on March 17. One of his roles there is inserting and removing ventilator tubes from coronavirus-positive patients.

He then got tested the next day and started self-quarantining inside his Brooklyn home, using a spare room and bathroom avoided by his wife and 11-year-old son, while awaiting the result.

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For more than a week, Fairweather says he was coughing up “thick, white mucus” and told the New York Post that his body “felt like it was falling apart.”

“Headaches were immense. They were making my eyeballs feel like they were on springs,” he added.

Fairweather, a native of Jamaica, reportedly treated himself with Tylenol and an array of Caribbean home remedies made out of turmeric, garlic and ginger.

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On Monday this week, he learned his test came back positive. But Fairweather was allowed to return to Maimonides the same day since he hadn’t experienced a fever in the 72 hours beforehand, in accordance with hospital policy, the newspaper adds.

Fairweather says his first shift back was “17 hours non-stop” and his wife and son living with him at his Brooklyn home have not shown any symptoms.